


Back Up Plan

by DualWieldingCousland (DualWieldingMama)



Series: Starting Over [7]
Category: Dragon Age (Video Games), Dragon Age: Origins
Genre: F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-10-17
Updated: 2015-10-17
Packaged: 2018-04-26 17:21:38
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,066
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5013331
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/DualWieldingMama/pseuds/DualWieldingCousland
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Regan heads back to Highever to visit family and deal with the aftermath of Vaughan’s … advances.  Dairren now needs a new groomsman. </p>
<p>(in case you didn’t know … I hate writing summaries)</p>
            </blockquote>





	Back Up Plan

_“How long are you going to be gone?”_

_“I’ll be back Friday morning. I promise.”_

_“Good … I mean, you don’t have to rush back just on my account.”_

_“You really think I want to stay with my family longer than the couple days I’m there? Trust me, as much as I love my brother and his wife, I start feeling like a third … well, fourth wheel if you count Oren.” Regan reached out the open window and rested her hand on his arm. She smiled up at him, squinting against the sun until he shifted just a hair to the right. “I have an actual work meeting tomorrow morning, ass-early. Then, I’m supposed to meet with Dairren to figure out what they’re going to do about the wedding party. I’d be perfectly happy just sitting it out, but I doubt he’ll let me get away with that.”_

_“If you’re sure ….” Alistair let his voice trail off, hoping he hid his feelings a little better than he had a moment ago. Her hand on his arm did help, a bit. He didn’t want to admit how sad he had been when she had said she’d be out of town for a few days._

_“Besides, I wouldn’t miss movie night with you for anything. It’s honestly the highlight of my week.” Before she could say anything else, Jasper jammed his head through the window, shoving her against the back of her seat. “Jas … Jasper’ll … miss you … too,” she gasped, trying to ignore the uncomfortable places the mabari’s paws kept ending up._

_He ran his hands over the mabari’s massive head, coming just close enough to touch noses. “Aw, I’ll miss you most of all.” He lifted his eyes to meet hers, smiled sheepishly as she tugged Jasper back into the car. He leaned down, rested an arm on the edge of the car and tilted his head. “Ok, well, maybe not most of all.” His voice was a whisper, eyes fluttering shut as he leaned in, brushed his lips against hers - …._

 

“Regan? Hello, Regan? You in there?”

Regan let out a small yelp as she was brought back to the conversation at hand. Flustered, she ran her fingers through her hair and sighed. “Sorry, Dairren; I … guess I just kind of … lost myself a little.” She gave him a half smile, shook her head to get the last remnants of that regretfully only partially accurate daydream out of her head, and sighed. “The whole thing with Vaughan has me more out of sorts than I think I want to admit. What were you saying?”

Dairren just shook his head and scooted away from the table to move next to her. They were in Fergus’ kitchen while the elder Cousland and his wife dealing with a tantrum-throwing Oren. The boy was getting left with a baby sitter and he wasn’t thrilled. He wrapped an arm around his best friend and hugged. “It’s OK. I totally understand. I _still_ can’t believe he’d do something like that.”

“I can.”

 The pair looked over to see Oriana slump against the door frame, hair all askew. They could still hear Fergus trying not to sound like he was arguing with Oren. She gave her sister in law a tired smile and shoved away from the frame, heading back into the other room to resume the fight. “Why do you think Fergus stopped hanging out with him? He was an ass that gave me the creeps.”

 Dairren sighed and shook his head. “I’ll call him in the morning and tell him he’s out of the wedding. I was never _that_ thrilled that he wanted to be included, anyway. Iona asked me to include him, and since I’d asked her to include you, I thought it was only fair.”

 “I _can_ drop out, Dairren. Iona never liked me much, anyway; even _after_ I introduced you two.”

 “Not a chance in the void, RC.” Dairren crossed his arms over his chest and just watched her fiddle with the cup in her hand. He’d known her since they were practically in diapers; they’d been best friends since they were able to talk. If he could have had her as his best man, he would have. But Iona had _insisted_ they be traditional. So as a concession, she’d agreed to include Regan with her other bridesmaids while he plucked another groomsman out of their small collection of friends. “You’re my best friend. You _have_ to be there. I promise you … he will _not_ be at the wedding.”

“You just want an excuse to stick me in a dress.” Regan laughed as her friend’s expression went from stern to mock hurt. “So am I stuck walking alone, or do we have a back-up plan?”

Dairren sighed, dropping into the seat next to her. “Well, there’s … Nathaniel?” He wasn’t too enthused about his first suggestion. He knew full well that Regan’s ex-boyfriend, while not on the list of people she _never_ wanted to see, was not high on the opposite list, either. When they had been together, everyone had figured the two would make things permanent eventually. And they might have, until Nathaniel’s father had decided that trying to kill his way into the Cousland family business made sense. They’d tried to make things work after that, but things were just too awkward, and they eventually went their separate ways. She’d only rarely spoken to him since, and not at all since she’d moved.

Regan shook her head and sighed. “I’d … really rather not, D.” She brought a hand up, rubbed her forehead before dragging her palm over her face. “I … he and I … we’re kind of … not speaking right now.”

They tossed a few other names back and forth, none of which really seemed like a good fit. Regan was just about to repeat her offer to drop out when Fergus strolled in, calmly running a comb through his mussed hair. “Crisis averted; the boy is now … calm.”

“What’d you do; drug him?”

Fergus grinned at his sister and shook his head. “Bribery – promised him he’d get to spend the day with Auntie Regan next Saturday.” He dodged the fist that came flying his way, ducking behind her chair. “Don’t worry; I’ll make it up to you. And Dairren, I have an idea of who can take Asshole’s place.”

“Who?” the pair asked simultaneously. Both thought they had exhausted the list of potential candidates already. If Fergus had someone in mind that _hadn’t_ been mentioned, neither knew who it could be.

Fergus strolled over to Dairren and held his phone down, moving the screen so Regan was unable to see his solution. He watched his sister’s face go through a range of expressions from curious to annoyed, and glanced at Dairren’s to see a conspiratorial smile cross his face. “Perfect, right?”

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ 

“And _then_ , both of them refused to tell me who Dairren was going to ask to be in the stupid wedding!” Regan smacked her fist against the cushion at the back of the couch, her head resting comfortably in Alistair’s lap. Jasper barely lifted his head, ignoring the gesture from his comfortable spot on the floor, in front of the couch

 “You couldn’t sneak a look at your brother’s phone before you left?” Alistair idly played with her hair as they waited through the previews of an old horror movie. Normally, he’d be quick to skip them, but this dvd was so ancient that such things weren’t allowed; you couldn’t even fast forward through them! So, to pass the time, he listened to her vent.

“No! Once he knew that I wanted to see what was on it, he kept it in his pocket the rest of the day.” She closed her eyes, enjoying the feeling of his fingers in her hair. It was relaxing, and after the events of the past week, she _needed_ relaxing. “The _one_ time he left it out, the stupid thing was pass-coded and I didn’t have a chance to run through the likely codes. _And_ I’ll have to babysit Oren Saturday – _next_ Saturday, not tomorrow.”

“Want me to see if Duncan will let me have that Saturday off? I … I don’t mind giving up my _other_ off day … Tuesday, I think, if he’ll do it.” He smiled down at her, not caring she couldn’t see him as he wondered just what it might be like to lean down and kiss those soft-looking lips. Honestly, he was kind of glad she _wasn’t_ looking; he didn’t think he’d have been so unconcerned about the thoughts running through his head had her eyes actually been on him.

She smiled, biting her bottom lip as the edges curled upwards. “I would lo ….” She stopped herself, not wanting to seem over-eager at the idea of him being there. “I’ll probably take him to the amusement park again. You sure you won’t get annoyed having a kid tag along with us?” She idly skritched her fingers along Jasper’s nose when he raised his head to nudge at her hand and opened her eyes _just_ enough to peek up at Alistair. “And you won’t get sick of being around me _that_ much in such a short time?”

“I could never get sick of you, sweetheart.” He turned red as soon as the words left his lips, realizing he’d just said that out loud. “I .. um, I mean ….” He cleared his throat, casting about frantically for _something_ to try and cover his slip before she made some comment, or worse, got up and left. “I don’t think it’s possible I’d get sick of spending time with such an awesome person. Sweet! The movie’s starting.” Alistair swallowed quickly, hoping he’d managed to recover before anything had registered to her.

She felt her heart skip a bit and her stomach abruptly knot when he spoke, that unintentional comment making her cheeks grow warm. Her war with herself over whether she should respond or not was short-lived; he changed the subject so quickly that Regan figured he hadn’t actually _meant_ that. “I’m sure it’s possible,” she eventually replied, looking up at him. “Is this one of those ‘so scary you have to huddle close’ movies, or the ‘so bad you have to make jokes throughout the whole thing’ kind?”

“Why can’t it be both?” He grinned down at her, hoping his cheeks weren’t as flushed as they felt. He said a quick prayer to the Maker that he wouldn’t make _another_ slip up like that, before he added, “Although, I have to admit I kind of like having your head in my lap.” Alistair froze, eyes flying wide open as his words registered; his heart dropped into his stomach and he just … stared at her, afraid to even breathe. He searched her face … green eyes staring up at him, shocked … looking for any trace of anger or any sign that his most recent slip up had pissed her off. Even Jasper sat up to stare at him in disbelief; like the mabari _knew_ what he’d said had been _so_ inappropriate. “I mean … um, I don’t ….” He chewed on his lip and ripped his eyes away and did his best not to make even _more_ of a fool of himself. “Just … forget I said that, OK?”

“Said what?” she whispered softly, trying to ignore the heat in her cheeks. She shifted into a sitting position, adjusting his arm so that it rested comfortably over her shoulders. She tucked her leg up, curled against him enough to rest her head just under his chin and smiled before resting a hand on his leg, just above his knee. “All I heard was that this is a snuggle-up-and-make-jokes kind of movie.”

“Thank you,” he whispered into her hair and prayed the thumping in his chest wasn’t too noticeable. “I’ll talk to Duncan in the morning and let you know about next Saturday.” He felt her fingers squeeze his leg and exhaled as the movie _finally_ started. At least now he was pretty sure he wouldn’t say anything _else_ foolish.

“Thank _you_ , Alistair. You are … um, _this_ … this is just what I needed tonight.”

“It is my pleasure.” He brushed a gentle kiss against her hair just as she shifted, ghosting her lips along his neck. “Whenever you need me ….” He cleared his throat and gave her a squeeze before hurrying to add, “and my TV, it’s yours.”


End file.
